The 30-year-old Duchess of Cambridge, an avid wearer of pantyhose since she joined the royal family, is lending support to the resurgence of the classic garment and is credited with boosting sales on her side of the pond.

In the U.S., pantyhose sales have been declining for many years, but industry experts say they've recently stabilized and could have, well, a new run.

Marshal Cohen of the marketing-research company NPD Group cautions that pantyhose are making a comeback slowly - "and not for the traditional reasons."

He says younger women regard sheer hosiery as an accessory rather than a necessity. This generation is more about style. They favor hose in prints, patterns and bold color. And it helps that today's fibers are more run-resistant.

Nivara Xaykao, intimates editor at the New York-based trend-forecasting firm Stylesight, says the polka-dot sheers with which designer Marc Jacobs finished off his fall 2011 collection have really taken off. (It's worth noting that the designer himself, who often wears a skirt, fills his sensible shoes with bare legs and socks.)

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Mature women may be faithful devotees of pantyhose and compression garments such as Spanx with sheer legs that make bodies look smoother and slimmer, Xaykao said, but a younger, hipper demographic that finds pantyhose cool is "owning their femininity and growing up."

Mitch Brown, president of Los Angeles-based Mayfair Tech and Doris International Inc., companies that manufacture hosiery labels for Nordstrom, Dillard's, Talbots and Victoria's Secret, says sheers are selling strong in skin tones and bronzes - and to every age group.

Sally Kay, president of the Hosiery Association, a trade group in North Carolina, says this is the first time in her 20 years with the group she's seeing younger women wear pantyhose.

"Their moms maybe didn't have to wear hosiery every day, and so that girl hasn't been encouraged to wear it," she says. "She's choosing her own fashion direction."

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She says the decision to wear pantyhose highlights a generational divide.

For many women who entered the workforce before the 1990s, hose were mandatory. (Pantyhose were invented in 1959, liberating women from decades of garter belts and stockings; the first seamless versions came in 1965.) The dot-com era brought a more casual dress code, and models soon took to the catwalk sans pantyhose. So women who followed fashion felt free to abandon them, too.

But during New York Fashion Week's fall shows last February, Rachel Roy, Vivienne Tam, Douglas Hannant and about 30 other designers put sheer hose on their models, says Alison Hessert, spokeswoman for Hue, the widely available brand that provided the legwear. She says sales have soared 24 percent since then.

"They know that pantyhose were all over the runways for fashion week," Rizzuto says. Her students take their cues from friends, magazines and stylish stars on television's Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars.

Angela Hawkins, general manager for Hanesbrands Inc., which owns L'eggs, is so convinced sheer legwear has made a comeback that next month the company is launching an ultra-sheer, run-resistant, toeless pantyhose (for a "better-than-bare look," she says), designed for open-toe shoes.

"Sheer hosiery is becoming a wardrobe essential again," she says.

Eryn Jackson, 18, says she has worn hosiery since she was 14. Back then, she completed her dressy outfits for church, family celebrations and special occasions with pantyhose.

As a young adult, she wears sheers (black is her favorite) because they "class up" an outfit. "It's a must," she says.